Calgarian Marilyn Coulter adopted Tony, a Mexican stray, after seeing a picture of him online. (CBC)

A non-profit organization is flying Mexican strays into Calgary, but the humane society says potential dog owners should first look at adopting abandoned local pets.

Pawsitive Match flies about 15 dogs a month to Calgary from La Paz, Mexico, part of the southern Baja peninsula where one animal aid organization estimates there are an estimated 10,000 strays.

Mirella Montgomery, who started the non-profit with several other people, said she feels a need to rescue animals from that area because they're often mistreated.

"They're beaten, they're kicked, they're thrown out of cars there," she said. "It's just an everyday thing. That's not to say we don't help dogs here, too."

The Calgary Humane Society's Lindsay Jones said that while her organization is grateful to anyone helping homeless animals, there are more than 130 dogs waiting to be adopted locally.

"Right now we are very full and so we'd like to see Calgarians step up and help out Calgary's homeless pets first," she said.

Mexican partnership

Marilyn Coulter adopted dogs from Mexico after her own two dogs passed away within a couple of months of each other. Coulter didn't set out to adopt through Pawsitive Match, but when she went online, she fell for a mixed breed called Tony.

"I saw his picture and he was the one that pulled at my heartstrings," she said.

Montgomery's organization is a partner with Los Cabos Humane Society and Baja Dogs La Paz in bringing the animals to Calgary. Baja Dogs organizes the flights, and Pawsitive Match finds homes for the animals.

The Calgary organization is relatively new and was launched after Montgomery learned about a struggling Mexican shelter in Cabo San Lucas three years ago.

"There was a shelter that was closing down and it was going to euthanize all the dogs. And so we thought, let's get organized, try to get these dogs up here and then try to start off so that we could save all dogs — Mexico dogs in particular — but wherever there's a need," she said.

Montgomery said her organization does sometimes help find homes for locally abandoned dogs, but most of her dogs come from Mexico, the United States and other parts of Canada, such as the Northwest Territories.